Godzilla was directed by Ishiro Honda, produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka, and written by Honda, Shigeru Kayama, and Takeo Murata. The film details the arrival of Godzilla in a then-modern Japan, and the consequences of his presence and very existence. Godzilla acted as an allegory and metaphor to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki less than ten years earlier, with the titular monster himself being a symbol of nuclear holocaust.

This film kickstarted the Showa series of films, and also acts as the launchpad for the Heisei era, starting with The Return of Godzilla in 1984. The film's continuity was again used as the basis for multiple films in the Millennium series. Outside of these continuity families, the film's been referenced multiple times over the course of the series in various ways, even if said piece of media isn't directly related to the film. Such examples include 2014 and 2016's Godzilla and Shin Godzilla utilizing the date of 1954 for certain important events, obviously alluding to this film.

Contents

Plot

The Japanese fishing boat Eikō-Maru is attacked by a flash of light from the water near Odo Island and sinks. A rescue boat, the Bingo-Maru, is sent out to investigate the accident, but meets the same fate. A second search boat is sent out and finds a few survivors in the area, and like the other two boats, is shipwrecked.

Meanwhile, on Odo Island, the natives of the fishing community are unable to catch anything. An elder says that Godzilla must be the cause. According to legend, Godzilla is a kaiju who lives in the sea that comes from the ocean to feed on mankind. Whenever fishing was poor, the natives used to sacrifice girls to prevent Godzilla from attacking the village.

Later, a helicopter carrying investigative reporters arrives on Odo Island. The natives all believe that the recent disasters in the ocean were caused by Godzilla, but the reporters remain skeptical. That night the natives perform an exorcism in hopes that Godzilla will not attack again. As the natives are sleeping, a storm hits the island, and much of the village is destroyed, as though it was crushed from above. The family of Shinkichi Yamada is killed during the storm, and Shinkichi insists they were killed by a giant monster.

The next day, the witnesses are brought to the National Diet Building in Tokyo. Paleontologist Dr. Kyohei Yamane requests that an investigative party be sent to Odo Island. A ship is sent out and arrives safely on the island. Yamane finds giant footprints contaminated with radioactivity, along with a trilobite. Suddenly, the village alarm is set off and the villagers run towards the hills. Godzilla pops his head over the hill and roars. The villagers discover that Godzilla is too large to fight and flee for their lives. Godzilla then leaves for the ocean.

Afterwards, Yamane starts doing some research and discovers that Godzilla is really a prehistoric hybrid of land and sea reptiles. He also discovers that the sediment from Godzilla's footprint contained a massive amount of Strontium-90, which could have only have come from a nuclear bomb. After Yamane's presentation, a man from the crowd suggests that the information should not be publicly known. Since Godzilla is the product of atomic weapons, the truth might cause some bad consequences, since world affairs are still fragile. However, a woman objects to Mr. Ōyama's suggestion because the truth must be told. After she insults Ōyama's, chaos breaks loose in the Diet Building.

Godzilla's origins are then revealed to the public. An anti-Godzilla fleet is immediately sent out and uses depth charges against Godzilla, in an attempt to kill the monster. In his home, Yamane sits alone in the room with the lights out. Yamane, being a zoologist, does not want Godzilla to be killed, but rather, studied.

That night, Godzilla suddenly rises in Tokyo Bay in front of a party ship. Within a minute, the monster descends back into the ocean, but his brief appearance causes nationwide panic. The next morning, officials ask Yamane if there is a way to kill Godzilla. A frustrated Yamane explains that Godzilla has already survived a massive amount of radiation, and believes that he should be studied to see what keeps him alive.

Yamane's daughter, Emiko Yamane, is engaged to Dr. Daisuke Serizawa, a colleague of Yamane's. Emiko, however, is in love with Lieutenant Hideo Ogata of the Nankai Steamship Company. When Emiko visits Serizawa to tell him that she loves Ogata, and wishes to break off her engagement to him, Serizawa reveals to her his own dark secret. He had unintentionally created a device that can destroy all life in the sea while performing experiments with the element oxygen. This device is called the Oxygen Destroyer, and is more powerful than any nuclear weapon. He gives Emiko a demonstration in his lab, by using the device in a fish tank. All the fish are disintegrated, only leaving skeletons. Shocked by this discovery, Emiko leaves Serizawa, promising not to tell anybody what she witnessed. She was unable to tell Serizawa about Ogata, or that she wanted to break the engagement.

That night, Godzilla appears again out of Tokyo Bay and attacks the city of Shinagawa. While the monster's attack is relatively short, it causes much destruction and death. The next morning, the military hastily constructs a line of 40 meter electric towers along the coast of Tokyo that will send 300,000 volts of electricity through Godzilla, should he arrive again. Civilians are then evacuated from the city and put into bomb shelters. The military then prepares a blockade along the fence line.

When night falls, Godzilla surfaces from Tokyo Bay again. The monster easily breaks through the giant electric fence, with no pain inflicted. The bombardment of shells from the Japanese army also has no effect. As Godzilla breaks through the high-tension wires, he uses his atomic breath to melt the electric fences. The tanks and military are useless against Godzilla, who continues his raid well into the night. By the end, the entire city is destroyed and thousands of innocent civilians are dead, dying, or wounded. As Godzilla wades into the sea, a squadron of jets fire rockets at the monster but Godzilla is unscathed as he descends once again into Tokyo Bay.

The next morning, the city is in absolute ruins. Hospitals are overrun with victims, many exposed to heavy doses of radiation. As Emiko sees the many victims of Godzilla's attack, she takes Ogata aside and tells him Serizawa's dark secret, in hope that together, they can convince Serizawa do something against Godzilla.

Ogata and Emiko visit Serizawa to ask that they use the Oxygen Destroyer against Godzilla. Serizawa refuses and storms down to his basement to destroy the Oxygen Destroyer. Ogata and Emiko follow him down in order to prevent him from doing so. However, this only results in a short fight between Ogata and Serizawa, with Ogata receiving a minor head wound. As Emiko treats the wound, Serizawa apologizes. Ogata tries to convince Serizawa that he is the only one who can save the world.

Then, after the argument, a grim television program appears on the air, showing the devastation and deaths caused by Godzilla, along with prayers for hope and peace. Shocked by what he's witnessing, Serizawa ultimately decides to use his last Oxygen Destroyer, but only one time. Serizawa then proceeds to destroy his research, knowing that this weapon was almost as dangerous and destructive as Godzilla himself, and that destroying this weapon will be for the betterment of society.

The next day, a navy ship takes Ogata and Serizawa to plant the device in Tokyo Bay. Serizawa requests that he be put in a diving suit to make sure the device is used correctly. Ogata at first refuses, but soon gives in. Ogata and Serizawa then descend into the water, and find Godzilla resting. Seemingly unaware of the divers, the monster slowly walks around the ocean floor. Ogata then is pulled back to the surface while Serizawa activates the Oxygen Destroyer. As Serizawa watches Godzilla dying from the destructive weapon, he cuts his cord and dies with Godzilla, sacrificing himself so that his knowledge of the horrible weapon dies with him. A dying Godzilla surfaces, lets out a final roar, and sinks to the bottom, disintegrating.

Although Godzilla is destroyed, the tone is still grim. As the people aboard the ship look to the sun and salute the sacrifice of Serizawa, Yamane suggests that it is unlikely Godzilla was the last of his species. He says that if nuclear testing continues, another Godzilla will probably appear somewhere in the world again.

Appearances

Monsters

Weapons

Vehicles

Production

With war films becoming frowned upon in Japan's film industry after World War II, Toho Studios looked for a new genre of films to make. Tomoyuki Tanaka, coming back to Japan after making progress on an overseas production, had a thought of "what if a giant monster awoke from nuclear radiation and attacked Japan, taking residence in Tokyo Bay?" While nuclear-radiated monsters started becoming popular at the time, the use in this film is due to the accident of the Lucky Dragon No. 5 fishing boat which was unknowingly catching fish too close to the Bikini Islands when an atom bomb test was conducted.

Chosen to direct was war veteran and pacifist Ishiro Honda, who would later on direct a good half of the Godzilla series during the Showa era, along with several other science-fiction films. To handle the special effects were Eiji Tsuburaya and Yasuyuki Inoue. Eiji Tsuburaya was one of the greatest masters of miniature effects on film; one of his WWII works (a recreation of the attack on Pearl Harbor) was later mistaken for actual war footage. Eiji Tsuburaya originally wanted to film Godzilla in stop motion like the recent 1953 sci-fi blockbuster, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, and the earlier classic and personal favorite of Tsuburaya's, King Kong. However, Haruo Nakajima quoted Tsuburaya in saying that "...it would take seven years to make..." so it was decided to portray the titular monster through an actor in a suit, a style of special effects that would be popularized by this film and later known as "suitmation." The Godzilla suit was originally brown, and weighed over 200 pounds. When suit actor Haruo Nakajima tried to move in it, it took several minutes. A lighter suit was made along with a pair of suspended legs. The filming took approximately three months.

Foreign releases

U.S. release

American Godzilla, King of the Monsters! poster

In the United States, Godzilla was released by Trans World as Godzilla, King of the Monsters!. It starred Raymond Burr, and featured additional dubbing and re-editing, with footage of Burr worked into the film. Burr plays an American journalist, Steve Martin. Burr's role was to provide a narrative on the events unfolding in Japan from an American perspective. Martin's character was close to the style of American journalist Edward R. Murrow. Martin in detail reports the atmosphere and attack that Godzilla has caused in Japan, much like Murrow's description of the Blitz in London caused by the Nazis.

Although key elements were removed from the original cut of the film, Raymond Burr added legitimacy through an American perspective to an otherwise foreign film. Because of Burr's addition, Godzilla was a success and later became cultural icon in the United States as well as Japan. While 20 minutes of new footage were added to the American cut of the film, 40 minutes were cut, including most of a scene in which journalists watch from a radio tower as Godzilla approaches, heroically continuing their broadcast until they are killed.

Godzilla, King of the Monsters! was later released in Japan under the title Monster King Godzilla (怪獣王ゴジラ, Kaijū ō Gojira?). This re-release was a considerable success and became popular among Japanese audiences. This style of "Americanization" through the inserting of a Western actor became commonplace in the localization of several subsequent kaiju films, including Half Human, Varan and Gamera. In 1985, when New World Pictures released the film The Return of Godzilla in the United States as Godzilla 1985, they chose to emulate what was done in Godzilla, King of the Monsters! and included new footage featuring American actors. Raymond Burr even reprises his role as Steve Martin from the aforementioned film.

For years it was difficult to obtain the original Japanese version of the film in the West. It had a very limited release, mostly for film salesmen, in 1955 and again in 2004 by Rialto pictures. The Japanese version was finally released in an award-winning double disc edition DVD by Classic Media titled Gojira/Godzilla, including both versions of the film. A couple of other countries followed suit, including Australia and Germany. In Japan, both versions were released in a double laserdisc version in 1994 and in a box set in 2004 containing all Godzilla films released up to that point minus Godzilla: Final Wars.

Italian release

The first theatrical release of Godzilla, King of the Monsters! in Italy was in 1957. The film was titled Godzilla il re dei mostri, a literal translation of the American title.

In 1977, a colorized version of Godzilla, King of the Monsters! directed by Luigi Cozzi was released theatrically in Italy. The Italian-dubbed film featured 80 minutes of footage from Godzilla and Godzilla, King of the Monsters! with 25 minutes of World War II newsreel footage and other 1950's monster movies added in. "Cozzilla," as it's often called, combining the last name of the movie's director and "Godzilla," was colorized using a process called "Spectorama 70" which consisted of applying various multi-colored gels to black-and-white footage.[1]

Box office

The film had a budget of ¥64,000,000 (roughly adjusted to $900,000), with marketing costs ending up at ¥37,000,000 (roughly adjusted to $600,000), for a total of ¥101,000,000 (roughly adjusted to $1,500,000). The film sold 9,610,000 tickets and grossed ¥152,000,000 (roughly adjusted to $2,250,000).

Godzilla, King of the Monsters! was given a $25,000 lease by Toho, which made its budget just about $25,000 more than the original Japanese film's. The film grossed $2,000,000, making it a box office hit. Both films grossed a combined total of roughly $4,250,000.

Reception

Gojira opened in Japan in 1954 and sold approximately 9.6 million tickets, gaining a lot of money for the time. While successful, it was small in relation to other works of the same year such as Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, which along with Gojira have become Japan's most famous films. A sequel was rushed into production. In America, it was also more successful than anticipated. The re-edited version of the film would be the one shown all over Europe and gained Godzilla an unprecedented audience which has since made the monster an icon as recognizable as Superman. Its box office earnings were 152 million Yen ($2.25 million).

For the German theatrical version 13 minutes of the film were cut, cutting out Dr. Kyohei Yamane's return to Japan, shortening his speech and presentation of what Godzilla is and shortening the final scene. This version was used for all home video releases of the film. The uncut director's cut was not released until 2004, when it appeared in a special 50th anniversary box set by Splendid Film, along with the German version and for the first time ever the U.S. version, plus a two disc edition of Final Wars. Godzilla was then made available as an individual release. In the U.S. and Canada, Classic Media released Godzilla in 2006 as part of its 'Master Collection'; this release was a two-disc set, with one disc being the Japanese original version and the other being the American version with Raymond Burr.

Trivia

In the original film, no specific date in 1954 is given to the day when Godzilla attacks Tokyo, but the "Cozzilla" version of the film places it on August 6, 1954, nine years after the bombing of Hiroshima.[10]

While the Godzilla series has been rebooted several times, many films in the series include references to the original film and the year 1954, whether they actually share continuity with it or not.

Godzilla Raids Again features many references to the original film, along with a stock footage sequence of Godzilla's raid on Tokyo.

The Return of Godzilla features some mentions of the first Godzilla's attack on Tokyo, while Doctor Hayashida at one point shows Hiroshi Okumura a photograph of Godzilla destroying the Diet Building from this film.

In Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, it is revealed that the Oxygen Destroyer used to kill Godzilla in this film mutated a colony of Precambrian crustaceans under Tokyo Bay into the monster Destoroyah.

In Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, Godzilla simply returned to the ocean after destroying Tokyo in 1954 and did not appear again until 1966. In this continuity, the Oxygen Destroyer was never used.

In Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, Godzilla was killed by the Oxygen Destroyer in 1954, but its use was kept secret by the government, who gave the J.S.D.F. credit for killing the monster. Godzilla's remains were later possessed by the restless spirits of the people killed by the Japanese military during World War II, and he regenerated and attacked Japan again almost 50 years later.

In the KiryuSaga, Godzilla was killed by the Oxygen Destroyer in 1954, but his skeleton survived and was used as the framework for the Mechagodzilla known as Kiryu, which was used by the Japanese government to battle the new Godzilla.

In Godzilla: Final Wars, it is stated that Godzilla first appeared in 1954, and the Earth Defense Force was formed to fight him and other giant creatures. Aside from this reference, the two films do not share continuity.

In Legendary Pictures' Godzilla, it is stated that Godzilla was awakened by an American nuclear submarine in 1954 and menaced American and Soviet forces in the South Pacific until the Castle Bravo nuclear test was conducted in an attempt to kill him. As with Godzilla: Final Wars, this film only shares a reference to the year 1954 with the original film and is not part of the same continuity.

In Shin Godzilla, the plot references the 1950s as the timeframe for which Godzilla as a being came to be, due to careless dumping of nuclear wastes, an obvious nod to Godzilla.

A puppet of Godzilla's upper body is utilized for close-up shots of Godzilla.

The sound effects team originally tried to create Godzilla's roar by using animal roars that had been edited. They sampled all kinds of birds and mammals, but nothing seemed to be the right match for the reptile-like noises a monster like Godzilla would make. Akira Ifukube, who was the film's composer, proposed stepping away from using animal samples. He took a string off of his contrabass and rubbed it with gloves soaked in pine tar. The sound that came from it was used as Godzilla's roar.

In the Wii version of Godzilla: Unleashed the Godzilla from this movie appeared as a playable monster.

Although Godzilla's first film appearance was in this film, released in November of 1954, he made his first official debut four months earlier, in July, when an earlier version of the film's script was read on a radio as an 11-part radio drama.

In a strange error during the film, after Godzilla's raid, the television that airs the memorial program turns on all by itself. None of the three characters present turn it on, nor do they take notice of the seemingly impossible occurrence.

At the time of its release, Godzilla was the most expensive Japanese film ever made. The combined production of both this film and Seven Samurai in 1954 almost plunged Toho into bankruptcy, but both films ended up being sizable box office hits.